Monday 25 June 2012 10.59 EDT
First published on Monday 25 June 2012 10.59 EDT

Britain's largest trade union has set aside a £25m fighting fund to support members taking strike action, warning of "trouble ahead" as a result of government spending cuts.

The Unite union's 1.5 million members cover the spectrum of the British economy, from NHS workers to nuclear submarine engineers and airline cabin crew.

Unite's individual branches are committing 2% of their members' fees to the fund – or £3.5m a year – to cover costs such as strike pay and campaign leaflets. Unite has opened the fund with a £25m lump sum from its own coffers.

Unite's general secretary, Len McCluskey, said: "Of course I think there is trouble ahead. The government's austerity programme shows that 80% of the cuts have not taken place. The attacks will mount and mount and mount. The government hopes that the climate of fear that has been created by austerity will cow people. We are saying that they should not be cowed and that they should fight back."

Speaking at Unite's policy conference in Brighton, McCluskey added that he foresaw industrial disputes "unfolding all over the place … private sector and public sector." Unite spent between £3m and £5m on disputes in the previous year, he said, with a significant impact from a British Airways cabin crew strike.

McCluskey said the benefit of the fund would be twofold. "On the one hand it gives workers confidence that they will get proper financial support and perhaps, psychologically, it will make employers think twice. Because many employers enter a dispute on the basis that they can starve workers back into submission."

In his speech to the conference, McCluskey warned that the establishment was attempting to push unions outside the law, citing a high court injunction last week that disrupted a bus strike in London. "As Bob Dylan once sang: 'to live outside the law you must be honest'. So, I will be honest and tell anyone in government thinking of putting unions effectively outside the law – beware what you wish for. For you will rue the day."

He said Unite would support its 1.5m members "come what may" and would "no longer lie down before injustice". Asked afterwards if he was endorsing wildcat strikes, which are illegal, McCluskey said: "We will take whatever action we need to in order to defend our members' rights."

Hailing the launch of a union-backed thinktank, Class – the Centre for Labour and Social Studies – McCluskey urged the Labour party to adopt a radical alternative to the coalition and the kind of policies that won a Socialist victory in the French presidential election, including publicly owned banks; higher taxes on millionaires; and building 500,000 new homes a year.